Lindley Fraser

After an academic career, during which he successfully switched from classics to economics, holding university posts in America, England and Scotland, Fraser was recruited by the BBC to join, and later head, its German service, in which his broadcasts to listeners in Nazi Germany won him a large following.

In 1926 and 1927 he was appointed to visiting fellowships at Princeton University and the Brookings School of Economics in Washington, D.C., receiving a doctorate from the latter.

[4] He spoke German fluently and clearly but with a distinct Edinburgh accent which won him a large following among listeners in Nazi Germany.

[3] Believing that the BBC's German service could play a valuable part in the rebuilding of postwar Germany, Fraser resigned his chair at Aberdeen in 1945.

[1] His biographer, Richard Hewlett, wrote that Fraser's frequent visits to the Federal Republic of Germany and his continued, regular broadcasts "made him widely known and respected throughout the German-speaking countries of Europe.